Especially on the agency side, PR people are also sales people. I used to really enjoy prospecting and pitching new clients, which often included meeting folks at tradeshows or outreaching to them “out of the blue.”

Lately, I’ve been on the receiving side of this outreach, and thought I’d share some of my favorite “what could you possibly be thinking” moments.

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A few months ago, the head of a local agency actually sent me email saying he thought my company looked interesting, and since we were located in the same state, we should meet. No really, that was the pitch. Nothing else. It ended by telling me to contact his secretary and set up a meeting. Ok, I’ll get right on that. Any expense reports you’d like me to fill out for you, too?

Right after I started, I got a call from an agency I had never heard of, claiming to be Boston’s biggest high-tech firm. When I admitted I hadn’t heard of them, instead of giving me more on the company, the biz dev guy jumped right into asking “what keeps you up at night?” I don’t know, strangers calling and asking me that? When I dismissed the question, the next one was “what’s your biggest fear?” Right now? You.

I was sent an email via LinkedIn by someone at an agency I never worked for. It basically said “looks like you used to work here, so I’m sure you’d love to meet and get an update on our latest client successes.” So I responded (surprisingly politely, I thought), pointing out my profile on LinkedIn and noting she might have sent the note to the wrong person. Her response? Nope, she meant me … guess there’s really no connection, but since I responded, we should still meet. Right …

A few weeks later, I got another email via LinkedIn. This time, it was from someone I had worked with before, though not very well. He worked for a new boutique firm and thought it would be great to work together. Except last time we worked together, it wasn’t great. At all. For either of us. His pitch? Maybe this time we wouldn’t argue “as much.” Because I apparently wanted to pay him to fight with me, or so he thought :)

The best was this week as SES, which came on the heels of our major launch with lots of coverage. Several agencies came up to introduce themselves, which was fine (I did the same at tradeshows for years). A few had some very interesting comments, and I truly enjoyed the conversations. But at least three came up to me claiming to have read the last few press releases with “great interest” and wanted to know if I would be looking for a PR firm. Other than the one listed on the release? Oh right, missed that. One actually had the nerve to snap at me for not thinking of them. Sure. And maybe if Ford started yelling at Toyota customers, it would sell more cars too.

Unfortunately, these conversations are a regular occurrence for me. While they make me chuckle, they also make me wonder how much damage they’re doing to our industry. And, how the heck they actually get new clients with that approach?